Telematic communication units (TCUs) such as cellular phones, personal data assistants (PDA's), Global Positioning System (GPS) devices, and on-board Vehicle Communication Units (VCU's), used in conjunction with a Wide Area Network (WAN), such as a cellular telephone network or a satellite communication system, have made it possible for a person to send and receive voice communications, data transmissions, facsimile messages and email messages virtually anywhere in earth. Such communication can be initiated at the telematics unit when it is turned on, or by entering a phone number to be called, or in some cases, by speaking a voice command to an automatic speech recognition system. In any case, the telematics unit automatically completes the process of dialing the number to be called, and thus establishes contact with the desired entity.
One limitation to using a telematics unit to retrieve email messages from a server-based information system is that attachments to the email message are generally not available to the user. This is due, in part to the fact that email attachments may be text, pictures, audio, or video recordings. It is therefore, necessary to first, download the attachment, and then route the attachment to a device that can make the content of the attachment available to the user.
It is therefore desirable to provide a system that would allow users to access email attachments in a vehicle.